Ralph Waldo Emerson

Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes.

Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.

That which we do not believe, we cannot adequately say; even though we may repeat the words ever so often.

The power of love, as the basis of a State, has never been tried.

The value of a dollar is social, as it is created by society.

Who can guess how much industry and providence and affection we have caught from the pantomime of brutes?

A picture is a poem without words.

Most people have never learned that one of the main aims in life is to enjoy it.

The worst sin… is… to be indifferent.

He was like a cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow.

People are much more willing to lend you books than bookcases.

For knowledge itself is power.

A good conscience is a continual feast.

Things derive their being and nature by mutual dependence and are nothing in themselves.

To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.

Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued.

To be mature you have to realize what you value most… Not to arrive at a clear understanding of one’s own values is a tragic waste. You have missed the whole point of what life is for.

It’s not the adversity, but how you face it.

Avarice is generally the last passion of those lives of which the first part has been squandered in pleasure, and the second devoted to ambition. He that sinks under the fatigue of getting wealth, lulls his age with the milder business of saving it.

The human race afraid of nothing, rushes on through every crime.

The arts and inventions of each period are only its costume, and do not invigorate men.